HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STÉPHANE DUJARRIC,
SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
WEDNESDAY, 07 JUNE 2023
UKRAINE
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) along with representatives of five UN agencies and some NGOs, were in Kherson today to assess the impact of the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam and coordinate the humanitarian response together with local organizations and authorities. OCHA said that the disaster will likely get worse in the coming hours as water levels are still rising, and more villages and towns are being flooded. This will impact people’s access to essential services and seriously raise health risks.
Yesterday, around 1,500 people left their flooded homes. That is according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and more people were evacuated today. Most of them are staying in Mykolaiv city which is close to their homes.
Access to water remains one of our main concerns – thousands of people depend on the Kakhovka Reservoir for drinking water, and the levels are dropping very rapidly.
In addition, flooding can also lead to contamination of water sources, and obviously, that also have a negative health impact.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns that the destruction of the dam will likely impact food security, as thousands of hectares of agricultural land have now been flooded, destroying recently planted crops. Authorities said that the destruction of the dam decimated the irrigation systems in the Dnipro, Kherson and Zaporizhizia regions.
On the response side, the UN is working non-stop to provide communities affected with the assistance they urgently need.
Yesterday, the UN distributed nearly 12,000 bottles of water, more than 1,700 kits with essential supplies for children on the move, and 10,000 purification tablets to five municipalities in Kherson and the city of Mykolaiv.
The UN has also distributed ready-to-eat food for about 400 people within hours of their evacuation. And today the UN is providing one month’sworth of food to 200 people in the Mykolaiv region.
Humanitarian organizations are also supporting the authorities with the evacuations and are helping coordinate the accommodation of people arriving from Kherson into various transit centres. They are also delivering hygiene supplies and other basic items to people in Mykolaiv and Odesa who have been evacuated and sought shelter in those two towns.
Cash, psychosocial and health support and recreational activities for children at the Kherson train station is also part of the ongoing response.
The work will continue in the coming days.
And yesterday afternoon, the Security Council held a meeting on Ukraine. Martin Griffiths, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, told Council members that the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam is possibly the most significant incident of damage to civilian infrastructure since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
SUDAN
Even as fighting continues, the UN, along with its partners, are scaling up to reach more people in need in Sudan. Since 24 May, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has facilitated the movement of at least 148 trucks carrying some 7,400 tons of relief items to various parts of the country.
Ceasefire or not, the UN will continue to deliver – but we need an end to the violence and we need an end to the looting of humanitarian facilities.
The UN revised Humanitarian Response Plan for Sudan is less than 16 per cent funded. Of the $2.6 billion required for this year’s response, we have received just over $400 million.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the Head of our Peace Operations department, is wrapping up his visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo today.
Earlier in the day, he spoke to media in Kinshasa and noted that the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) is in its transition phase, adding that discussions are ongoing with government and key actors to ensure a responsible and phased exit.
While in Kinshasa, Mr. Lacroix met with President Felix Tshisekedi; the Prime Minister, Sama Lukonde; members of his government, and the President of the Senate, Ngolo Pierre.
As mentioned, discussions included the reconfiguration of the peacekeeping mission, as you will recall, is in response to the government's desire to revise the transition plan to speed up the process of MONUSCO’s withdrawal.
Mr. Lacroix also held meetings with civil society organisations, including women, and political actors from both the majority and the opposition during which they discussed the electoral process and security issues in the East of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
He appealed for calm, so that the forthcoming elections are credible, peaceful, transparent, and held within the constitutional timeframe.
Mr. Lacroix will be back in New York tomorrow.
MALI
The International Mediation – which includes Algeria, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), the Economic Community of West African States, the African Union, the European Union, the United States and France, met this week to discuss the implementation of the peace agreement in Mali.
In a statement, they welcomed the progress made, but also noted that important aspects of the Agreement have yet to be implemented. They called for a greater international mobilization to provide adequate humanitarian assistance to people in the country facing unspeakable suffering.
This situation, the Mediation added, underscores the urgent need to relaunch the peace process, and they reaffirmed their commitment to fully play their role as political guarantor of the implementation of the Peace Agreement.
SECURITY COUNCIL
Earlier today, Christian Ritscher, the Head of the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh (UNITAD) briefed the Security Council on the work being done by the Investigative Team.
He said that the commitment of the Iraqi Government, in partnership with UNITAD, to advance the fight against impunity and seek justice is stronger now than ever. He added that UNITAD has constantly been developing and readjusting strategies to improve its investigative work and the collection of evidence, which is necessary to hold perpetrators accountable for the most heinous crimes codified in international criminal law.
Mr. Ritscher said there are three elements that are most important for his team’s success: competent courts, admissible and reliable evidence, and an appropriate legal framework.
WORLD FOOD SAFETY DAY
Today is World Food Safety Day, and the theme this year is ‘Food safety, everyone’s business’.
Thee World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) say that with an estimated 600 million cases of foodborne illnesses annually, unsafe food is a threat to human health and economies. This disproportionally affectsvulnerable and marginalized people, especially women and children.
An estimated 420,000 people around the world die every year after eating contaminated food and children under 5 years of age carry 40 per cent of the foodborne disease burden.
FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION
Montenegro has paid its regular budget dues in full.
